Country of Residence
Nigeria
Age
20
Project title
EcoRise Nexus
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
At EcoRise Nexus, we turn climate change from something young people only hear about into something they can actually see, understand, talk about, and act on in their everyday lives and communities.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
https://eco-rising-nexus.lovable.app
Project Category
My project is an existing project that I started
Project Stage
Growth (We’ve moved past the very first activities and are beginning to have consistent weekly or monthly impact)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
It all started on a Saturday evening. I had just returned from my church choir rehearsal and sat on my bed while my twin brother lay beside me watching a movie. Earlier that morning, I had seen news reports about the frequent flooding affecting different parts of Nigeria, and the images kept coming back to me. I started wondering: what can we, as citizens, actually do to reduce these impacts? I knew that poor waste disposal especially dumping waste in gutters and waterways contributes to flooding in many communities. But then another question hit me: what if people simply don't understand the consequences of these everyday actions? What if we've started accepting environmental problems as normal because there isn't enough awareness about them? I turned to my brother and asked what he thought about me starting a climate and environmental sustainability initiative that would begin by educating people about these issues. I knew I couldn't change the world in a day, but I could start with my community and the young people around me. That evening, the idea became something I wanted to pursue. I spent the next four days researching how to make it work, developing our goals, vision, structure and programmes. I eventually reached out to friends, and their excitement and support made me realise that this idea could become something bigger than the conversation that started it.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
Sometimes, I think we have become too used to seeing environmental problems around us, e.g; gutter filled up with waste or plastic scattered around our communities e.tc. People see these things every day, but they can easily become “normal.” That is the problem I want EcoRise Nexus to help address: the gap between the environmental challenges people experience and their understanding of how their everyday actions contribute to them. In many communities, conversations about climate change and sustainability can sometimes feel complex, technical, or like something meant for conferences and experts. Meanwhile, young people are actually living through the consequences without always having the opportunity to connect the dots. This matters to me because I believe proper awareness can really change how people see the things they have become accustomed to. If someone understands why dumping waste into a gutter matters, or how losing trees affects their community, they may begin to see their everyday choices differently. I honestly do not expect EcoRise Nexus to solve Nigeria's environmental challenges overnight. I want to start where I am, with young people and the communities around me. We aim to make climate and environmental issues easier to understand, more relatable, and harder to ignore while building a generation of young Changemakers ready to champion this cause.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
We don't want climate action to feel like a lecture. We want young people to see it in things they already understand, enjoy, and experience every day. That is how EcoRise Nexus approaches the problem. We do this in several practical ways. First, we organise online webinars that bring students from different parts of Nigeria and abroad together to learn about climate and environmental issues from seasoned experts and, importantly, young people who are already taking action themselves. This makes learning interactive and allows young people to hear from people they can relate to. We recently concluded our international webinar titled "Young people for the planet, Global voices, Global action" and it was a huge success. More than 900 young people registered for the webinar. The feedbacks were amazing and it can be found on our official website attached to this application. We also take learning outside the screen. Through tree-planting activities in schools and orphanages, we talk to young people about why trees matter and then involve them in actually planting and caring for them. For children, we use storytelling. We create relatable comics with different characters and everyday situations to introduce environmental ideas early and make them easier to remember. We also pay attention to where young people already spend their time: social media. Since AI-generated videos have become a fun and familiar part of these platforms, my team has experimented with using AI educational videos to turn climate and environmental messages into content that young people are actually interested in watching. Across all these activities, the idea remains the same: don't just tell young people to care about the environment,help them see why it matters in their own lives.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
When I started EcoRise Nexus, I honestly didn't know how far a simple idea could go. I just knew I wanted environmental conversations to reach young people in a way that felt real to us. Since then, that idea has grown into activities that have reached over 2,500 people, including young people across 4 primary and secondary schools and visits to 2 orphanages. We have taken climate education beyond just ordinary online conversations through tree-planting exercises, enlightening webinars and community engagement. We have spoken with young people about waste disposal and involved them directly in practical activities rather than simply telling them what they should do and we have seen visible improvements and positive feedbacks. Some young people have been inspired to start their own initiative centered on promoting environmental sustainability in their various communities and countries. As stated earlier, we've also experimented with creative ways of reaching different audiences. Our comics and AI-powered educational videos help people see environmental ideas through creative and relatable approaches. They are all available on our official website. For me, the most encouraging part is seeing that an idea that began on a Saturday evening has already reached thousands of people and moved beyond awareness into action. And I see this as a beginning, not a finish line.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
What is the point of telling a young person to care about the environment if the way I'm explaining it doesn't even speak to them? That question really shaped EcoRise Nexus. There are already so many youth-led initiatives doing meaningful work through clean-ups, tree planting, campaigns and environmental education. What we are trying to do differently is bring these approaches together in a way that feels familiar to the people we want to reach. A child can meet an environmental lesson through our comics, where characters and everyday situations make the message easier to understand. A young person scrolling through LinkedIn or Instagram can encounter one of our AI educational videos. A student who wants to go deeper can join our webinars and hear directly from experts or other young people. We have also built Maya, our EcoRise Nexus AI assistant, so learning doesn't have to stop when a webinar or social media post ends. Anyone visiting our official website can ask Maya questions about climate action and environmental sustainability. Then we take that knowledge offline. Students in schools and orphanages don't just hear about the importance of trees, they get to live the experience by planting them. What makes the combination work is simple: each part meets people at a different point. The comics and videos catch attention. Webinars build understanding. Maya answers the questions that come afterwards. Physical activities turn that understanding into something young people like myself can actually experience. So our innovation isn't claiming that we invented any of these methods. It is the way we connect them around one simple idea: make environmental action relatable enough to understand, engaging enough to remember, and practical enough to do.
How many people are on your team?
22
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
EcoRise Nexus is a 22-member team, and everyone has a part to play. We have people handling programmes, research, media, creative design, partnerships, community engagement, welfare and volunteers, among others. I lead as Founder & Executive Director, but I don't see leadership as doing everything myself. I trust my team to handle their roles effectively but we still plan and execute our activities together. Working with them has been simply amazing.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
Honestly, I don't want EcoRise Nexus to remain something that is only known within the spaces where we have already worked. Over the next year, one of our biggest plans is to launch a 6-week International Ambassadorship Programme in collaboration with other youth-led initiatives. Selected applicants will learn from seasoned experts in climate and environmental education and those who successfully complete the programme will become EcoRise Nexus ambassadors in their countries. They will take what they learn back to their communities and help champion climate action in ways that feel relevant to the people around them. Over the coming years, we also plan on carrying out the "Green bag project". It's a project to impact 1,000 children in Nigeria to become what we call "Young planet keepers". The green bag will be a kit that includes educational materials created in a way that is relatable and mind shifting to these young people. We often hear that children are the leaders of tomorrow but i firmly believe that they are the Changemakers of today and that's why we're focusing mainly on them. They are the foundation for building a sustainable future. We have also made plans to expand into other universities. For me, the next step is simple: reach more young people, give them something meaningful to take away, and let them carry the work further than I ever could on my own.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
Over time, I have built a credible community of more than 20,000 students and young professionals on LinkedIn. Many of them don't just read my posts; they respond, share them and show interest whenever I talk about EcoRise Nexus or a programme we are running. We also have a WhatsApp platform with almost a thousand members which gives us a more direct space to keep people informed, interact with them and get them involved. When we have a webinar, volunteer opportunity or physical activity, I use these platforms to invite people in. I try not to make it feel like I'm simply advertising an organisation. I explain why the activity matters and give people a reason to want to be part of it and the number of interested students are always mind-blowing. We have received feedbacks from these young people and seen visible actions taken by them. Some chose to carry out online awareness through social media and some take the action into their communities. Going forward, I want to turn more of the people who follow EcoRise Nexus into active changemakers. As we expand into more universities in Nigeria and carry out our planned activities for the future, I really want young people to become the kind of changemakers that move from simply seeing climate action content to actually taking what they've learnt into their schools, communities and countries.
